Arik’s flight to Dubai to cut $15bn drain on Nigeria

Nigerian business owners, tourists and top government officials have commended indigenous airline, Arik Air for the launch of its scheduled flight operations from Nigeria into the United Arab Emirates (UAE), noting that besides breaking the many years of the monopoly of Arab airlines (Emirates and Etihad) on the Lagos-Dubai route, it will go a long way in cutting down the huge capital flight the country loses to foreign airlines operating the country’s routes.

Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mrs. Sally Mbanefo, who spoke shortly before the commencement of the inaugural flight from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, said

the government would partner Arik Air on the Dubai route to boost trade and tourism between both countries.

“This is a landmark event,” Mbanefo said. “We will be happy to work with Arik Air as tourism partner. We have had no regrets. We are quite comfortable when we fly with Arik. Truly, it is the safest airline in Nigeria,” she added.

About 167 passengers were on board the Airbus 330 aircraft, which flew out of Lagos via Abuja last Tuesday to Dubai, UAE. The Airbus 330 has the capacity to carry about 217 passengers and some analysts described the passenger turn out as very impressive for an inaugural flight, pointing out that a lot of Nigerian passengers had been yearning for an indigenous airline that will offer them some form of option or alternative on that route.

Nigeria loses an estimated $15 billion annually to foreign airlines due to the absence of a national carrier and the inability of any other indigenous airline to reciprocate on behalf of its many BASA deals with various countries around the world.

Arik Air CEO, Dr. Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, said filling the void for an indigenous carrier on the Nigeria-UAE route was a challenge the airline undertook on behalf of the country given the need to restore national pride to hundreds of Nigerians plying that route daily and patriotically longing to fly a domestic carrier.

“We are here on this route to improve the reputation of our country Nigeria. That is what we want to showcase of this Lagos-Abuja-Dubai route. We want to show that Nigeria should not be at the bottom of the class but at the top,” said Arumemi-Ikhide at a pre-departure event held at the MMIA Lagos.

“We want to connect Nigeria to the world and the world to Nigeria. We are giving Nigerians a flying option. Arik Air represents in its own humble way a small slice of what our great people in Nigeria are capable of doing,” he added.

A Nigerian passenger, Mr. Elisha Onoyemeakpo, who was on board the aircraft lauded Arik Air for launching into the Lagos-Abuja-Dubai route, saying aside the flying option to the foreign carriers it created for Nigerians and with indigenous dishes and local films served as part of its in-flight entertainment, he was also impressed with the job opportunities the airline was creating for some Nigerians with its route expansion into the UAE market.